How much alcohol do YOU drink?

General Discussion
41

It is not really the quantity of alcohol that a person drinks that is the problem but a persons reliance on it and any behavioural changes if they are deprived of their regular drink..if you stop drinking for several days and you start getting irritable or aggressive etc, then you have a drink problem.

My personal opinion is that you consume a hell of a lot of alcoholic drink in a 21 day period but then again I only drink approx 3-4 small bottles of beer a year, I do not like spirits and I do not like wine. I prefer Tea and sometimes I drink coffee.

42

I have not had an alcoholic drink since Xmas day... partly for health reasons, partly for cognitive reasons and partly to see if it made a difference.

The result has been that I sleep better, feel mentally sharper and will continue to be off the booze for the foreeseable.

Prior to stopping I would say I was a light drinker the odd glass of wine during the week, half a bottle of wine at weekends (the occasional party/festival excess) and no spirits or beer.

43

Seems a lot to me but then if I were retired here I'd probably drink a lot more. Working all day everyday means a couple of glasses in the evening with dinner then off to bed for an early start. Having said that, there is a big difference, my OH drinks almost nothing - quite common for French women - and thinks the English in general drink a lot. When I was at uni in France evenings out with friends were very dry and I'd be sooooo thirsty having finished my drink in normal English fashion whilst they made theirs last all evening despite my offers to get a round in! That was in Aix-en-Provence, when I taught for a year in Brittany, the culture was very much closer to home and students drank just as much as UK students :-O

44

My doctor has said that 2 days a week without alcohol is good, also I'm on the 5.2. diet so killing 2 birds with one stone

Well, may help someone out there!

45

is that excessive? only you can answer but if you want some facts i can work out uk units for you

lets assume that your gin and cognac are 40%, your wine and champagne is 12% and your beer is 4% that should get us a ball park figure

a unit is (quantity in milliliters * percentage by volume)/1000

so gin =

((3*350)*40)/1000 = 42 units

champagne =

((2*750)*12)/1000 = 18 units

wine =

((25*750)*12)/1000 = 225 units

cognac =

(700*40)/1000 = 28 units

12 beer =

((12*250)/1000 = 12 units

add that up you get 325 units over the three weeks, or 108 units a week, or assuming your sharing that equally, 54 units a week each, lets go to 7 units per day each, now lets reverse engineer that, 7*1000, is 7k, / 12 = 583, / 750, equals roughly 77% of a bottle of wine a day each,

not going to offer any advise but thought you might like to see the numbers broken down as it often helps with working out what you are actually drinking

now to put that into perspective the UK's current guidelines are that there is no safe level of consumption but that both men and women should not regularly drink more than 14 units a week, that said i reckon i am on about the same par as you

and in response to David's post above, having to pay for medical care is neither here nor there, if you want to exceed the safe limits thats fine, that is why they are guidlines not laws ;)

46

Works for me,my wife does not drink spirits but matches me wine for wine. My doctor and optition both say our local red is good for you so let’s get another bottle open before it goes off

47

I've read quite a bit about 'how much is too much, since I tend to enjoy drinking a little too much sometimes. British studies usually says Two drinks a day for women, 3 for men. I think also that it depends on when you drink, for instance, drinking your 3 on an empty stomach for happy hour might be more harmful for you liver to precess than if you had one or two at each meal. The food helps slow down the absorption and ease the impact. So, try to drink with food. I also think that different people react differently to alchol with varying tolerances, ie some can get drunk quite fast while it can take others a few to feel a nice buzz.

Was it just the 2 of you? Wow, impressive! Expensive too! I'd say as long as you dont have a hangover that impedes your life, bottoms up! I've come across many articles on how good red wine is for you, in moderation, & champagne is very good for high blood pressure, practically a cure! Not so sure about gin, but all can have a good effect on the hart, as alcohol is a blood thinner & helps with cholesterol, just as long as your not torturing your liver. If you are concerned about liver damage, there are cures for that, as in milk thistle along with eating healthy foods. Cheers!!

48

2 or 3 glasses of champagne a year. That is it.

49

I've always been a bit ambivalent about drinking. I do like a drink it's true but only with others. I just don't ever drink on my own, I couldn't face it so I suppose I'm what they call a social drinker. I have no problem about volunteering to be the teetotal driver for a group if we're going out. Tonight, for example, I'm playing and singing at L'Auberge du Noyer near Ruffec. I'll have a panache (shandy) or two for the thirst until I've finished my sets and then I'll keep the others company with a few glasses of wine. For the rest of the week - well, it depends who shows up! My wife manages to keep up a steady flow of quaffing though. She says she didn't drink at all until she met me....

50

it's too much if you think it is. Does drinking stop you doing other things, that you want to do? If it does then it's a problem. Sig other and I got grilled about drinking when we went for big medicals, because "les anglais" all drink too much, it seems.

51

Reading this brought a smile, I must say!......sounds like our visits to the bottle bank!

When you average it out, its more or less a bottle of wine between two per day, the obligatory cognac after the meal and perhaps a tipple or two on a Friday!........and over the weekend.

If it doesn't affect you getting on with your life, on a daily basis, and you're not causing harm to anyone......I wouldn't worry!

Cheers!

52

If you think you are drinking too much then you probably aren't. If you think you're not drinking too much then you probably are. Given that most advice on alcohol consumption dreamed up by ""Nanny", was just that, dreamed up and written down on the proverbial fag packet (not that Nanny smokes) this is the best I can do. No doubt you will be besieged by advice from the "health nazis". They always complain about having to pay for the smokers and drinkers while ignoring the contribution to the tax pot but expect me to pay for their skiing accidents,falls from horses etc. etc...

53

I don't drink at all, so I am probably an alcoholic :-)

54

My alcohol consumption since the age of 16 was fairly 'robust'. Alcohol was always a social lubricant and, indeed, often what ypu did to fit in with everyone else, be it at the bar, at parties or over dinner. In my early 20s I was feeling under the weather so stopped for a couple of months. Apart from that I went through my 20s, 30s and 40s with alcohol integral to lifestyle, alongside getting married and having kids. I never had a problem, never dropped below 25 units a week.

However, in my 40s I started to develop chronic acid reflux which culminated in me having a serious stomach operation. That cured the reflux but a condition of having the op was that I give up alcohol (as well as tea, coffee and cheese). I accepted that.

So, over the last year I have drunk no more than a small glass of wine around once a month (but have only cut back on the other things). I can say that I feel so much healthier than I did before. I sleep better, have more energy, get far fewer colds, have a calmer temperament, and find my thinking to be so much clearer.

This is just my experience, which might be of interest, and I would never dream of telling anyone else what they do with themselves. Drink what you're happy to drink!

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55

I wish I'd said that :-)

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